Tennis Racquet String Pattern for Advanced Players

One of the major differences between an advanced and intermediate tennis player, is the advanced player analyzes their equipment to best serve their needs on the court. Whether they need more power or control, an advanced player looks at their own game and then finds the best tools available to make them excel. The most important tool that every tennis player has, is their racquet. While the racquet may seem simple in design, it’s actually very complex, as each and every detail has been carefully planned to achieve a desired result. The tennis racquet string pattern for advanced players is one of the most important details in the racquet and can make a huge impact on the court.

The Control Racquet

In our beginner and intermediate string pattern articles, we discussed the power and tweener tennis racquets, and how the string pattern affects both. For advanced players, the name of the game is control. Advanced players don’t need to actively think about the basics anymore when hitting a tennis ball. They also don’t need a racquet that generates additional power or spin on the ball, because they have the technique to do it themselves. Through muscle memory, their technique, footwork, and every other tennis motion comes without actively thinking about it. This frees them mentally to focus on other aspects of the game, such as: Where should I hit my next shot? What’s my opponents weakness and how do I exploit it? They’re thinking about tennis strategy, and not about brushing up the back of the ball to try and hit a topspin shot. With strategy being the primary focus, it’s essential to have a racquet that can provide you lots of control. So what’s the best tennis racquet string pattern for advanced players to enable control? All control racquets have a small head frame and closed string pattern, sometimes as extreme as 18 main by 20 crosses (18×20). The more cross hatches on a racquet and the closer they are together, the more control you’ll have over the ball. While you lose out on power, the advantage of having absolute control over the ball is a sacrifice worth making.
Check out this video from Clay Ballard explaining why string pattern is so important when picking a tennis racquet.

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